I, Janna Orlikowski, do hereby recant any negative or ill-willed comment I may have made about vans in the past. (I DO NOT, however, take anything back about station wagons).
I drove a van for 6 years until it came time to get another car and we (I) decided it was my turn to get something different, and Chad got the van. So I got a Chrysler Pacifica and loved it. Except for the times when I couldn’t fit a week’s worth of groceries in the back without rearranging seats, or the times we have to take a car-top carrier on every weekend trip we take. So after camping at the Indiana Dunes last month I snapped and we (I) decided it was time to trade the Pacifica in for a van. We got a 2004 Honda Odyssey EX (maybe? that last part matters little to me) and it is glorious. It’s currently fully loaded for a camping trip we’ll be leaving for in 2 hours. There is nothing underneath the kids’ feet, or in between their seats, or under their seats, and miracle of miracles: there is no car-top carrier.
I'm so jealous! I never thought I would want a van, until I had my second kid and I realized there is no longer room for anything in our car.